The planet is full of amazing places and it is difficult to decide which ones to see first. Unfortunately, you might never get to see some of these places since famous areas around the planet are threatened by extinction.
Changing climate and anthropogenic impact have put a lot of pressure on various famous world landmarks, making them decay. Here are five endangered destinations in Europe you should visit before they are gone forever.
Venice, Italy
Venice is a beautiful city with crisscrossing canals; however, the city is suffering from a major environmental issue. The changing climatic conditions, rising temperatures and the combination of a slowly sinking city have caused Venice to start flooding. Floods used to be a rare event in the city but now they are a common occurrence. The bridges and buildings of Venice are threatened by rising seas. The buildings don’t have proper foundations and are gradually subsiding into the waters of the lagoon.
Ancient City of Hasankeyf, Turkey
Located on the banks of the Tigris River, this ancient city is 12,000 years old which is packed with archaeological treasures. One of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, Hasankeyf is facing various threats. Despite many protests, the Turkish government wants to displace Kurdish locals and move ahead with a controversial hydroelectric dam project that will flood 74,000 acres of the ancient city, ruining the precious site.
Olympia, Greece
This Greek city was home to the first-ever Olympic Games in 776 BC. It is a designated archaeological site under protection but the upkeep of this ancient heritage has been declining due to Greece’s financial problems. Moreover, the future development of the surrounding area is further threatening the site. Wildfires caused in dry, hot summers have begun to get closer to the ruins and it steadily faces extinction.
European Alps Glaciers, Switzerland
The Swiss Alps are often characterized as the most spectacular part of the Alps and have been famous among mountaineers climbing the Swiss peaks since the early 19th century. However, the Swiss Alps began to melt at the end of the last Ice Age and sped at an alarming rate in the 1980s. The gorgeous Alps are slowly disappearing owing to global warming and might be entirely gone by the end of the century.
White Cliffs of Dover, England
The striking, photogenic White Cliffs of Dover have been mentioned by Shakespeare over 400 years ago. Now, the iconic landscape is at risk, as the cliffs have been eroding 10 times faster in the last 150 years than they did over the past 7,000 years. Great Britain’s famous white cliffs of Dover are threatened by the changing climate-induced weathering away of the seaside cliffs and we may lose them by the end of the century.